1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to financial transaction notification systems and methods, generally. Particularly, this invention relates to systems and methods for collecting, monitoring, and comparing data to customer requests.
2. Description of Related Art
Prior to the current invention, available event notification systems included, for example, local desktop notification systems, such as e-mail alerts or instant messaging alerts which alert a user through a visual or audio signal that a new e-mail or instant message has arrived and is available for retrieval within the users local computer network. These alerts merely indicate that a message is available for viewing, the alerts do not provide the substance of the message.
Other event notification systems alert a user via, for example, an e-mail message, of the availability of certain information, solicited or unsolicited, on the Internet or World Wide Web through a specified Web site or universal resource locator (“URL”). An unsolicited notification includes, for example, the availability of an electronic greeting card (e.g., www.bluemountain.com). A solicited notification provides notification of the availability of information that was specifically requested by the user. For example, at www.realtor.com, a registered user can request notification of homes for sale according to pre-defined user parameters, e.g., location, price, number of bedrooms. When homes meeting the registered user's parameters are listed on the www.realtor.com Web site, the Web site sends an e-mail to the registered user indicating that there are homes available for sale fitting the user's parameters and providing the link to the Web site in the e-mail. These types of notification systems are limited to one method of notification, e-mail. Further, the notification system is not linked to any other type of user information, such as user financial information, e.g., bank accounts, credit accounts, investment accounts, that is constantly variable due to the actions of the user, i.e., the actions of the user do not result in a triggering of the alert.
Finally, there are notification systems available wherein a user's local computer is equipped with a data filter that receives and searches incoming data messages, e.g., e-mail messages, intended for the user, for predetermined event information. When the data filter identifies the predetermined event information, a local event indicator, e.g., audio and/or visual, is presented through the user's local computer indicating that a previously specified event has occurred. The user then has a specified amount of time, e.g., 10 seconds, to acknowledge the local event indicator by, for example, clicking on the provided visual alert, e.g., icon. If the user does not acknowledge the local event indicator within the specified amount of time, the user's computer establishes a connection with a server in order to remotely notify the user of the event through a notification method of the user's choice, such as, pager, telephone, or personal digital assistant (“PDA”). This notification system is limited to searching and retrieving local event information from user-intended messages, e.g., Web pages pushed to a users e-mail address. Further, the local events, though pre-defined and requested, are not triggered by user actions, such as financial transactions.